Absolute Best of David Bowie Deluxe

November 9th, 2023

Updated and expanded! A 100-song career retrospective, hitting every phase and album (plus select singles and collaborations), some more than others. My pride and joy. Listen on Apple Music!

  1. Liza Jane [Davie Jones with the King Bees, single, 1964]
  2. You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving [Davy Jones and the Lower Third, single, 1965]
  3. I Dig Everything [single, 1966]
  4. The London Boys [b-side of “Rubber Band,” 1966]
  5. Love You Till Tuesday [David Bowie, 1967]
  6. Space Oddity [David Bowie aka Space Oddity, 1969]
  7. Memory of a Free Festival
  8. The Width of a Circle [The Man Who Sold the World, 1970]
  9. The Man Who Sold the World
  10. Changes [Hunky Dory, 1971]
  11. Oh! You Pretty Things
  12. Life on Mars?
  13. Queen Bitch
  14. Velvet Goldmine [recorded during the Ziggy Stardust sessions, 1971; b-side of UK re-release of “Space Oddity,” 1975]
  15. Five Years [The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972]
  16. Moonage Daydream
  17. Starman
  18. Ziggy Stardust
  19. Suffragette City
  20. Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide
  21. All the Young Dudes [Mott the Hoople, All the Young Dudes, 1972]
  22. Satellite of Love [Lou Reed,Transformer, 1972]
  23. John, I’m Only Dancing (Sax Version) [single, 1973]
  24. Watch That Man [Aladdin Sane, 1973]
  25. Drive-In Saturday
  26. Cracked Actor
  27. Panic in Detroit
  28. Time
  29. The Jean Genie
  30. Hang on to Yourself [Live July 3, 1973; released on Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture, 1983]
  31. Sorrow [Pin Ups, 1973]
  32. Diamond Dogs [Diamond Dogs, 1974]
  33. Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) [edit, iSelect, 2008]
  34. Rebel Rebel
  35. 1984
  36. Young Americans [Young Americans, 1975]
  37. Can You Hear Me?
  38. Fame
  39. Station to Station [Station to Station, 1976]
  40. Golden Years
  41. TVC15
  42. Stay
  43. Breaking Glass [Low, 1977]
  44. Sound and Vision
  45. Always Crashing in the Same Car
  46. Be My Wife
  47. A New Career in a New Town
  48. Subterraneans
  49. Sister Midnight [Iggy Pop, The Idiot, 1977]
  50. Nightclubbing
  51. Lust for Life [Iggy Pop, Lust for Life, 1977]
  52. Some Weird Sin
  53. Beauty and the Beast [“Heroes”, 1977]
  54. Joe the Lion
  55. “Heroes”
  56. The Secret Life of Arabia
  57. D.J. [Lodger, 1979]
  58. Look Back in Anger
  59. Boys Keep Swinging
  60. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) [Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980]
  61. Ashes to Ashes
  62. Fashion
  63. Under Pressure [Queen & David Bowie, single, 1981]
  64. Remembering Marie A. [David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, 1982]
  65. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) [from Cat People: Original Soundtrack, 1982]
  66. Modern Love [Let’s Dance, 1983]
  67. China Girl
  68. Let’s Dance
  69. Loving the Alien [Tonight, 1984]
  70. Blue Jean
  71. Dancing in the Street [David Bowie & Mick Jagger, 1985]
  72. Absolute Beginners [from Absolute Beginners: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1986]
  73. Magic Dance [from Labyrinth, 1986]
  74. Beat of Your Drum [Never Let Me Down, 1987]
  75. Tin Machine [Tin Machine, Tin Machine, 1989]
  76. You Belong in Rock & Roll [Tin Machine, Tin Machine II, 1991]
  77. The Wedding [Black Tie White Noise, 1993]
  78. Black Tie White Noise [feat. Al B. Sure!]
  79. Buddha of Suburbia [The Buddha of Suburbia, 1993]
  80. Strangers When We Meet
  81. The Motel [Outside, 1995]
  82. The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
  83. I’m Deranged
  84. Little Wonder [Earthling, 1997]
  85. Battle for Britain (The Letter)
  86. Dead Man Walking
  87. I’m Afraid of Americans (V1) [remixed by Nine Inch Nails, single, 1997]
  88. Thursday’s Child [‘hours…’, 1999]
  89. The Dreamers
  90. Toy (Your Turn to Drive) [Toy, recorded 2000, released 2021]
  91. I Would Be Your Slave [Heathen, 2002]
  92. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
  93. New Killer Star [Reality, 2003]
  94. Never Get Old
  95. Province [TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain, 2006]
  96. The Next Day [The Next Day, 2013]
  97. Dancing out in Space
  98. Blackstar [Blackstar, 2016]
  99. Lazarus
  100. I Can’t Give Everything Away

(art by Brian Cunningham)

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Not the Brightest Killer of the Flower Moon

November 3rd, 2023

The demimondes depicted by the American master Martin Scorsese vary widely — his New York stories alone span three centuries — but they have one common requirement: It takes intelligence, of one kind or another, to navigate them. His protagonists are smart, street smart, shrewd, skillful or some combination of those qualities as a rule.

That rule is broken in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Normally, a character like Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) — a World War I veteran turned henchman in a plot to murder Osage people for their oil profits in 1920s Oklahoma — would either rise to the top of his uncle Bill Hale’s organization, or wise up and fight to stop it on his own. Ernest does neither, precisely because he lacks the qualities Scorsese has spent a lifetime depicting.

I wrote a little visual essay about Killers of the Flower Moon and Martin Scorsese protagonists for the New York Times.

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‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Is Martin Scorsese’s David Lynch Movie

October 30th, 2023

Scorsese and Lynch share in the recognition that there are tragedies that cannot be undone, that there are wounds that cannot be made whole, that some tears in the fabric of human decency are permanent. By facing the horror of violence head on, they raise the curtain, turn on the spotlight, and allow the preciousness of life to take center stage.

I wrote about Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and the work of David Lynch, particularly Twin Peaks, for Decider.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Scavengers Reign,’ Max’s Psychedelic Sci-Fi Animated Series

October 27th, 2023

What Shows and Movies Will It Remind You Of? Pull up a chair, this is gonna take a minute. The pastel wonder of the all-ages series Adventure Time and Steven Universe, the beautifully creepy sci-fi psychedelia of the French animation landmark Fantastic Planet, the weird techno-organic symbiosis of G.I. Joe: The Movie, the grotesque fungal infections of The Last of Us, the adorable and improbable bio-psychic critters of James Cameron’s Avatar, the beauty and danger and environmentalism of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the futuristic motorcycles and gloopy expanding blobs of Akira, the weird-new-thing-every-four-minutes imagination and pacing of Raised by Wolves, the working-stiffs-get-stranded-among-xenomorphs-by-an-uncaring-Company idea of Alien, the hey-we’re-just-folks-trying-our-best-in-the-wasteland vibe of Station Eleven…but wait, there’s more! Beyond films and TV, the biggest touchstone of all is the comics and art of French cartoonist Moebius, and the Moebius-indebted wave of underground science-fantasy comics that peaked around 10-15 years ago (and spawned the. If you’re a gamer, you’ll be reminded of virtually every exploration-based science-fantasy game of recent years: No Man’s Sky, Astroneer, Subnautica (the plot is virtually identical), even The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and its weirdly lovely Depths. 

Our Take: Reread that last paragraph. Think you can guess the problem here? Scavengers Reign is exceedingly well-executed psychedelic science-fiction animation for adults and teens; co-creators, co-writers (with Sean Buckelew and James Merrill), and co-directors Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner are very obviously both huge aficionados and skilled practitioners of the genre. But if you, like me, are steeped in this stuff, you’ll react one of two ways: “Oh boy, more of this!” or “Oh boy, more of this?” I’m more in the latter camp myself.

But that doesn’t take away from the talent on display in the creature concepts and designs. Again, these are mostly attempts to reinvent a pretty reliable wheel — How can we make an alien parasite, but different? — but they’ll have you saying cool/gross/ooh/eww throughout. Considering that this is a survival adventure, that’s half the battle.

I took a look at Scavengers Reign, the vibey, gloopy new Max sci-fi animated series, for Decider.

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“Billions” thoughts, Season Seven, Episode Twelve: “Admirals Fund”

October 27th, 2023

Am I at a loss for words over the series finale of “Billions”? That depends. Do hooting and hollering count as “words”?

There’s no other way to put this: In its final hour, “Billions” delivered, and delivered, and delivered. It saw what it needed to do — spend 45 minutes beating the living snot out of Mike Prince, and the remaining 15 minutes depicting beloved characters being really nice to each other for a change — and by God did it. In the process, it gave us that rarest of prestige-TV commodities: a happy ending.

I reviewed the marvelous series finale of Billions for the New York Times. I’m gonna miss this wild show.

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City in Dust: How ‘Cloverfield’ Brought Horror Back to the Giant Monster Movie

October 27th, 2023

And the thing looks so expensive. The casual ease with which it depicts the most expensive place to film in America getting completely destroyed by a gigantic entity and the United States military is mindblowing, especially after 15 years of bland destructive spectacles in superhero movies shot either on streets in Vancouver or in warehouses in Atlanta. I watched it with my 14-year-old kid, who at times literally couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “How the hell did they film this?” he asked, completely baffled — and awed.

I wrote about Cloverfield, an excellent and extremely effective giant-monster horror movie that deserves reappraisal, for Decider.

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As ‘Billions’ Ends, Its Creators Discuss the Changing Face of the Ultrarich

October 26th, 2023

Since “Billions” first aired, shows taking on the very wealthy have become both common and popular. But shows like “Succession,” “The White Lotus,” even a horror story like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” are often satirical. “Billions” is frequently funny, but the intent feels different.

LEVIEN This was not a satire. It’s a drama with comedic moments, but that’s different than a satire. These characters are perhaps exaggerated in some ways, but we’re not sending up the rich. That wasn’t our goal here. It was more to let people into a world we felt we’d identified — yes, with our spin and our point of view, but not so that we could all huddle together and laugh and feel better than them.

KOPPELMAN There’s an absurdism to “Billions,” for sure, but that’s because the world right now is capital-A Absurdist. The show has to capture that spirit.

On the eve of the series finale, I spoke to co-creators and showrunners David Levien and Brian Koppelman about Billions for the last time (sniff!) for the New York Times.

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‘Foundation’ Showrunner David S. Goyer on Creating the Year’s Most Exciting Show — And Why He Doesn’t Want You To Binge It

October 25th, 2023

GOYER: We’re aware of the fact that we’ve got actors like Lee Pace and Jared Harris, and that we can’t just plunk anyone into one of those smaller roles, or it’s going to break the suspension of disbelief. That is our motto: Every one of these people has to be able to stand toe to toe with Jared Harris.

I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time: I interviewed David S. Goyer about making Foundation Season 2, the year’s most thrilling show and one of the all-time great sophomore surprises, for Decider.

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Burt Young’s Guest Spot on ‘The Sopranos’ Was Everything That Made the Show Great

October 21st, 2023

Not many actors can say they embodied a masterpiece in a few minutes of screentime. I certainly doubt that’s what Burt Young had in mind when he appeared on The Sopranos back in 2001. But the lovable Rocky alum’s turn as an ailing, elderly hitman who’s got one last burst of violence in him is getting held up as one of the veteran actor’s most memorable roles for a reason. In a handful of scenes in a one-off performance, Young gets his nicotine-stained fingers on nearly everything important aspect of the show. It’s a role seemingly written to illustrate what this show is about, with Young selected to give the demonstration.

I wrote about the late Burt Young’s one-episode role on The Sopranos as a microcosm of everything good about the show for Decider.

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“Billions” thoughts, Season Seven, Episode Eleven: “Axe Global”

October 20th, 2023

Whatever may eventually happen with this almost vestigial story line, it doesn’t here. There’s no big prestige to whatever trick the writers Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Beth Schacter are pulling, not in this episode anyway. This one really is as simple as two groups vying for an alliance with a minor character we’ve seen only once, ahead of revealing her pick. Forgive me, but I still have visions of that fabulous shock ending from Season 2’s penultimate episode dancing in my head, a level of scheming, skulduggery and surprise that I want to see again before the curtain closes.

We may yet get it. I simply refuse to believe that a show this beautifully bombastic won’t go out with a bang, in a finale with more twists and turns than a Mario Kart racetrack. Keep in mind that while the opposing armies seem pretty firmly established, they have every possibility of fracturing, reconfiguring or turning on themselves. Which leads to the biggest question of all, and no, it’s not whether Chuck and Axe can stop Mike Prince — it’s whether they will be back at each other’s throats if and when they do.

I reviewed the penultimate episode of Billions ever for the New York Times.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Eight: “The Raven”

October 17th, 2023

Copenhagen Cowboy, Dead Ringers, The Idol, Foundation Season 2: It’s been a great year for the lurid and the florid on television, maybe the best I can remember. The Fall of the House of Usher fits right alongside them, glowing and buzzing like a gorgeously lit, expensively dressed corpse. 

I reviewed the finale of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Seven: “The Pit and the Pendulum”

October 17th, 2023

Similarly, the script, by Mike and Jaime Flanagan, reveals that Freddie would have been a dentist in another life, because, ha ha, he tears Morrie’s teeth out with pliers. Once again, major kudos to the dead actor of the episode, Henry Thomas, for finding remarkable depths in his character’s shallowness. There’s no real pathos for Freddie of course, the way there was for the other four kids: There’s just disgust at discovering that someone this ineffectual could also be this cruel. It’s like watching a tree sloth light an orphanage on fire. You wind up relishing every swing of that pendulum as it slices his drugged but conscious and feeling ass in half.

I reviewed the penultimate episode of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Six: “Goldbug”

October 17th, 2023

As was the case with T’Nia Miller last episode, Samantha Sloyan is outstanding as an extraordinarily wealthy and well put-together woman coming apart at the seams. The way she almost physically wills her presentation back on track after stumbling out on stage shouting the f-bomb at a nonexistent person, with the camera never flinching from her high-cheekboned, anxiety-ridden face, is a wonder to behold. She handles the explicit sex stuff in the sex tape with the practiced frankness of a woman confident in asking for what she wants. (As much as her fetishes represent a deeper dysfunction, I don’t think Usher is presenting the fetishes as a dysfunction in and of themselves, any more than Chuck Rhoades being a sub on Billions is supposed to indicate he’s an unethical prosecutor.)

I reviewed episode six of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Five: “The Tell-Tale Heart”

October 16th, 2023

True, the episode may lack keep-you-up-at-night scares — the occasional flash of a corpse in a place where corpses shouldn’t be isn’t enough — but it makes up for that in intensity. It’s like an Evil Dead movie in that regard: I don’t think anyone has a hard time sleeping because of anything Ash slices up with that chainsaw hand, but none would deny that Evil Dead 2 is horror, because it was clearly made by filmmakers dedicated to shotgunning outrageous fucked-up violent gross over-the-top shit at your face every thirty seconds. From its rich assholes’ long Glengarry monologues about their own awfulness to the deliberately cruel demises of all the Usher kids, that’s obviously The Fall of the House of Usher’s intention too. You could say that’s its beating heart.

I reviewed episode 5 of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Four: “The Black Cat”

October 14th, 2023

It’s my kind of catty, my kind of blunt, my kind of gross, my kind of show.

I reviewed the fourth episode of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Three: “Murder in the Rue Morgue”

October 14th, 2023

And so we continue with the recipe that’s worked so far: Graphic violence, sexual fetishism, actors having fun playing heel, and the unwavering belief that the ultrawealthy should be brutally punished for their crimes. What, honestly, is not to like here?

I reviewed episode 3 of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode Two: “The Masque of the Red Death”

October 14th, 2023

Okay, I’m calling it: This show fucks! Somewhat literally! Titled “The Masque of the Red Death” after the Edgar Allan Poe story upon which it’s loosely based (Is that how this is gonna go? It’s a stealth anthology series with an overarching storyline?), this episode of The Fall of the House of Usher is one of the horniest episodes of television I’ve seen in a while. And I covered Season 2 of Foundation! Honestly, it takes me back to the the bone-deep kinkiness of Alice Birch and Rachel Wesiz’s Dead Ringers, a show with which Mike Flanagan’s Usher has some stylistic as well as narrative similarities. Those similarities now also include the desire to rev your engine.

I reviewed the second episode of The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” thoughts, Episode One: “A Midnight Dreary”

October 14th, 2023

I can think of worse ways to spend a few nighttime hours this month than in the company of these rich assholes as they slowly destroy each other in a creepy mansion, while Mike Flanagan’s script introduces a patent attorney named Ligeia, or reveals that the artificial heart Victorine implanted in that monkey has the brand name Tell-Tale, or turns the monkey into a murderer on the rooftops of Paris, or whatever. At the very least, the element of satire should cancel out his more maudlin tendencies. (“Whatever walked there, walked together,” anyone?) Flanagan feels about as convincingly Poe-ish as B-movie legend Roger Corman did back in the day when he loosely adapted the bard of Baltimore’s work. But if we’re having some spooky fun, so what?

I reviewed the series premiere of Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher for Decider.

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“The Changeling” thoughts, Season One, Episode Eight: “Battle of the Island”

October 14th, 2023

Is that good enough? Y’know…yeah, probably. Denying your audience any kind of opening season wrap-up whatsoever isn’t a habit I want to see showrunners adopt as a rule, and it’s frustrating to see it in effect here. My concerns about the emotional tone of the show remain in effect, too. (Over the past week I kept thinking about how little I want little soliloquies about how great it is to remember the smell of food cooked in the kitchen with love in a horror TV show.) But it’s still LaKeith Stanfield, one of the best in the biz. It’s still Clark Backo, who I feel has many more notes to play in this role. When the show does make its mind up to be creepy, it’s real creepy — just the baseline assertion “It’s not a baby” alone is a scary thing to hear, to contemplate, to consider the ramifications of and the rationale behind. The Changeling was frustrating, but it showed a great deal of promise. I’ll head deeper into the forest if the journey continues.

I reviewed the season finale of The Changeling for Decider.

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